What if Things Changed Tomorrow: Would You Be Ready?

How dependent is your business on its current customer base? What if you had to start over and build back this steady revenue stream from its beginning? Is there a greater business sustainability threat? Would your company survive the challenge? These are real business sustainability questions and concerns facing many organizations today.

Working as an energy consultant in the oil and gas industry for years, it was well known by suppliers that safety was job number one. If you are unable to identify, document, and meet certain safety measures, your company will not survive in the oil and gas supply chain.

The reason for this was simple. Companies in the energy industry hold safety as their premier corporate value. After decades of incidents and accidents, leading energy companies realize that human error and accidents present the single greatest business sustainability risk to their organization. One action resulting in an injury, spill, or toxic release could prove to be the end of an organization. As a result, the industry as a whole set out to manage this risk by implementing internal and external performance criteria and measures.

As carbon legislation begins its inevitable road to a defined cost to business, internal and external emissions will soon become a business sustainability risk which companies across all industries will be unable to avoid. Despite the growing business eco awareness of pending legislation, our professional consulting experiences have shown us that many businesses are still not overly concerned with the direct implications. However, many of these companies may be missing a real threat as their customers may be actively planning to address business sustainability risk and may be seeking to gain visibility into their supply chain.

Similar to the energy industry’s view of safety, the value for sustainability in any or all industries could change overnight. What if your customers approached you with the following:

•    Our company views sustainable performance as a premier corporate value.
•    We expect all of our suppliers to demonstrate similar values.
•    All of our suppliers will provide visibility into their sustainability performance.
•    Our expectation is that each supplier will be able to meet defined metrics.
•    Suppliers unable to demonstrate sustainable performance will be replaced.

Is this really that extreme of an example? Wal-Mart is already heading down this sustainable performance path with its supply base.

Taiga Company provides professional consulting and business resources to companies seeking to proactively redefine their business relationships.